


just out of reach

by claritharklow



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Gen, Not sure where I'm going with this, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, basically the strawberry spell isnt perfect and darkstalker isn't completely gone from peacemaker au, but i dont plan to involve pantala very much, set after darkness of dragons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-08 03:22:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20294140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/claritharklow/pseuds/claritharklow
Summary: Recently, strange things are happening to Peacemaker. His scales feel wrong, and he keeps getting flashes of something he can't quite remember. To make matters worse, his mother and Moon seem to be hiding something from him. But whatever this secret is, it can't be that bad, right...?





	just out of reach

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the first two pages of this last year and then forgot all about it until I found it again a few hours ago in a document titled "i don't even know anymore." Figured I might as well finish it and post it, even though I'm not that into WoF anymore. It's currently 4:30 am so I may regret this

Peacemaker loved suntime. Maybe it was the RainWing blood in him, but as far as he was concerned, there was no better way to spend an afternoon than lying on a platform at the canopy, wings stretched out at his sides, drifting through pleasant dreams to the symphony of multicolored birds calling from the trees around him. He got a few hostile looks over it, but no dragon, NightWing or RainWing, could hold a grudge against him.

It was almost strange, how conflict flowed around him like one of the winding jungle rivers around a half-submerged stone. Even his mother only gently chastised him when he played pranks on RainWing dragonets or snuck out into the rainforest at night to watch the glow-in-the-dark fish in the pond. “_It’s dangerous out there,_” Hope had told him sternly when he came back at dawn. “_No matter how tough you think you are, someone will take you by surprise._” Peacemaker, who was mostly thinking about the stomachache he’d given himself by eating every strange fruit he came across during his adventure, barely noticed the odd expression on her face and heaviness in her voice. But in the end she forgave him.

Everyone forgave suntime-loving, fruit-eating, half-RainWing half-NightWing Peacemaker. He had no place in the tribes’ violent history, so they barely paid attention to him. 

The sunlight was strong today, Peacemaker noted contentedly, spreading his wings out farther to catch the warmth on every scale. Though his eyes were closed, the faint scratching of a quill reassured him that Hope was sitting at his side, writing yet another letter to their friends at Jade Mountain Academy.

Peacemaker sat up at the sound of approaching wingbeats. A small black shape was flying in from the direction of the NightWing village. Of course, from this distance it could really be any school-age dragonet, but there was only one who would come to visit him…

“Moon!” he cried, jumping to his feet. “Mother, look!” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hope set down her quill and parchment and stand beside him. He squinted at the figure as it drew closer. Even with his one-year-old sight, he could tell it was Moon. Excitement rising, he waved frantically, shouting, “Moon! Moon, Moon! Mother look look it’s Moon!”

“I know, dear,” Hope said patiently. “I’m sure she wants to hear all about what you’ve been up to since yesterday.”

_Since yesterday?_ “Gliding race! With Vine and Jaguar and Ocelot!” he exclaimed. “Ocelot won—but I woulda if I didn’t trip,” he added hurriedly.

Hope chuckled. “I know, dear, I saw it. You were very fast.” 

Moon touched down on the platform with a soft thud, tucking her wings back with more grace than Peacemaker had ever managed after a landing. (Really, he considered anything other than falling flat on his face a success; his balance needed a little work.) “Good morning, Hope. How are you, Peacemaker?” she asked, smiling.

“Good—no, great! I stayed up late to watch the mete—met—the lights fall!” he said, the wonder of the phenomenon still fresh in his mind. “Mother said if I didn’t sleep I would be GRUMPY today, but I’m TOTALLY NOT.” 

“I forgot how much energy he had—has—at this age,” Hope said to Moon, watching Peacemaker fondly. “He’s just the best dragonet I could have, really.” 

The ever-present worry lines on Moon’s forehead disappeared, and her wings dipped a bit as her shoulders relaxed. “I’m glad to hear it.” 

“Hey!” Peacemaker said loudly; he hated it when bigger dragons talked over his head. “Moon, guess what I did? Guess what?”

“I have no idea, but I’m sure it was fun. What did you do?” 

He launched into a full account of the race, stumbling over his own words as he explained everything, from the course to the prize (a bowl of all different types of fruit, gathered hastily by the dragonets before the race) to how he’d almost won it. After all, it wasn’t _his_ fault a vine had caught his wing, and by the time he’d untangled himself Ocelot was a second away from the finish line. 

“Ocelot?” Moon echoed. “Are you...mad at her? If you think you should’ve won instead—”

“Ocelot is my _friend_,” Peacemaker interrupted, confused. “And she didn’t cheat. I just had really bad luck. Next time I’ll look out for vines!” 

Before Moon could reply, her friend Kinkajou landed on the edge of the platform. “’Morning, Hope, Peacemaker,” she said, her scales an oddly muted gray-blue. “Do you mind if I steal Moon for a minute? Turtle’s having a, um, problem.” After a short, muttered exchange Peacemaker couldn’t hear, the two dragonets flew off, Moon stealing a glance back at Hope before she disappeared among the trees. 

Peacemaker crossed his arms. He’d been expecting Kinkajou to at least bring him some fruit, like she always did. “Fine,” he huffed, spreading his wings and walking to the edge of the platform. “SOME of my friends aren’t MEANIES who have SECRET WHISPER CONVERSATIONS right in front of me.” 

“What was that, dear?” Hope said, but he had already leapt off.

Naturally, he dropped like a stone. He was still getting the hang of this whole “flying” thing, after all. He was only a few body-lengths from the ground when his wings finally opened properly and sent him gliding easily up between (and sometimes into) the trunks of the trees. After a few minutes of frantic flapping and blundering, he made it to the edge of the main RainWing village in one piece.

He spotted his friends almost immediately. Ocelot, a shiny gold dragonet with splotches of pink down her back, was perched on top of a moss-covered tree stump, with thin, nervous green Vine and soft purple Jaguar looking up at her expectantly. “Hey! Hey! Guys!” Peacemaker yelled, scampering up to join them. “What are we playing?”

“Hide-and-seek!” Ocelot said proudly.

Peacemaker’s heart sank. “Oh.” His black scales always stuck out terribly in the vibrant rainforest—not to mention the inherent unfairness of playing hide-and-seek with dragons who could vanish into thin air. 

Ocelot saw his drooping wings and added hastily, “Maybe you be the seeker, okay? You’re super good at it.” 

Peacemaker agreed and clambered up onto the tree stump, pressing his claws over his eyes. He heard rustling as the other dragonets ran away. “One!” he yelled. “Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Um…uh…” 

“Seven!” Jaguar called from somewhere above his head. 

“Oh, yeah, seven! Eight! Nine! Aaaaaand, TEN! Ready or not, I’m gonna catch you!” Peacemaker opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings carefully. Grass covered most of the clearing, with the occasional boulder or rotten log sticking up out of the ground. One tall tree stood in the center, towering above the scene. The edge of the RainWing village rose from the trees on the far side, where dragons of all colors sat on wooden platforms. Just a few paces away, a patch of bright purple wildflowers swayed gently in the breeze. A butterfly was perched on the edge of one violet blossom. 

Except… 

No, it wasn’t perched on the flower, but somewhere just to the right of it. Its legs couldn’t be on the petal itself, but, perhaps, on the scales of a silent, invisible dragonet. Peacemaker bounded over and poked the flower with his claw. Ocelot let out an indignant squawk and shimmered back into existence, her scales crisscrossed with lines of orange surprise.

“HAH! I got you!” Peacemaker yelled as the butterfly fluttered away. “I’m the BEST!” He ran a victory lap around the clearing and literally tripped over Vine, who had disguised himself as an empty patch of air. That left one dragonet.

He remembered how Jaguar’s voice had seemed to come from the sky. But they had rules for this game: _no going outside the clearing_ and _no going way way up high in the air cause Vine can’t fly yet and that’s no fair_. That left only the tree. 

Peacemaker dug his claws into the soft bark at its base and started to climb. His wings were almost immediately caught in the web of branches and vines, and he kept nearly falling when huge iridescent bugs scuttled over his claws. When a bright green snake dropped onto his arm, he yelped aloud and flung it away.

“Peacemaker?” Ocelot yelled from the ground. “Do you see him?” 

Peacemaker glanced down at his friends, rainbow dots no larger than mice from this high up. For a split second, it felt _right_, like this was the angle from which he always viewed the world. Then the sensation was gone. Without quite knowing why, he peered under one of his wings. His scattering of multicolored scales was still there, same as always. What else had he expected to see…?

Then his outstretched wing-tip brushed against something distinctly scaley, and he heard a sharp intake of breath. “Jaguar,” he said, and tapped the invisible surface again. The final dragonet appeared from thin air, a triumphant look on his face. 

“I win, right? I’m the last one?” 

“Uh, yeah,” said Peacemaker, and Jaguar let out a whoop of glee, swooping down to meet Ocelot and Vine on the ground. Peacemaker took one last, puzzled look at his own scales and followed.


End file.
